Virginia’s thrilling, 85-77 victory over Texas Tech in overtime during last night’s NCAA men’s basketball championship game averaged 19.6 million viewers, according to Nielsen. That’s a 23% increase over last year’s final on TNT and TBS, which historically draws a smaller audience than CBS’, but a 15% drop compared to CBS’ final in 2017.
The entire tournament was an ad revenue windfall for both CBS and Turner. The tournament attracted an estimated $933 million in ad revenue, according to estimates from ad measurement firm iSpot.tv. Approximately 12% of that overall ad spend, or $114 million, came from Monday’s national championship game alone.
